It affects 1.39 million cars in Europe, 2.47 million in the US and 1.4 million in China.

Toyota is also recalling 459,000 vehicles in Japan, 650,000 in Australia and Asia, as well as hundreds of thousands from across the Middle East, and from within Canada and its other, smaller markets around the world.

The carmaker said there had been no reports of accidents, injuries or deaths as a result of the window problem.

It said little progress had been made in making the system more transparent and less complex, and that confidence in it had become "very fragile".

The eurozone debt crisis remained the main cause of concern, the fund said.

On Monday, the IMF downgraded its forecast for global growth, predicting growth in 2013 to be 3.6%, down from 3.9% in its previous forecast in July. This included sharp downgrades for the UK, Brazil and India.